I read most of Graham Greene's novels many, many years ago and am therefore well aware of how often he returns to the subject of religion and in particular his own Catholicism in his work.
The theme is certainly writ large in this British-made movie adaptation of his novel of the same name. Deborah Kerr is the vibrant, attractive woman trapped in a loveless marriage to her cold-fish senior British civil servant Peter Cushing, at the time of the Blitz over London during World War II. The couple meet up with handsome American novelist Van Johnson, only for he and Kerr to fall for each other and from there to the end, the narrative is more or less a slow expiation of her guilt as she wrestles with her commitment to. Cushing and her passion for Johnson.
The crux of the movie occurs when a bomb hits the house where the lovers are having an assignation. Kerr survives but sees under the rubble an apparently lifeless body she believes to be Johnson. In desperation she offers up a prayer telling God that if He lets Johnson live, she will give him up for good and dutifully return to Cushing's side. And Johnson does indeed survive, leaving Kerr feeling obligated to keep to her celestial bargain. Only she can't get over Johnson and so turns for advice to both a male friend, who bears a disfiguring birthmark over half his face and also a less-than-dogmatic priest after hours in church.
A year ater, a still pining Johnson bumps into Cushing, who, still unsuspecting of the affair, invites him to their house to await her return from her habitual troubled, nocturnal wanderings. The scene is seemingly set for a final resolution of this romantic triangle before fate steps in again with devastating implications for all three.
The film features two fine lead performances by both Kerr and Cushing, although Johnson is a bit over-dramatic at times, and is atmospherically directed by noir-specialist, Edward Dmytryk, then in Blacklist exile, who captures well the furtive element of the secret affair, capturing the pair walking the darkened, rainy streets of London or meeting in gloomy interiors.
Ultimately, the film fails, its theme of Catholic guilt proving too much of a cross to bear coupled with two over-dramatic life-or-death plot points, which I readily concede were present in the novel and so probably unavoidable.
Still, these narrative weaknesses apart, the good performances and skilful direction already mentioned carry the film a good way, if not quite down the road to ultimate redemption.
The theme is certainly writ large in this British-made movie adaptation of his novel of the same name. Deborah Kerr is the vibrant, attractive woman trapped in a loveless marriage to her cold-fish senior British civil servant Peter Cushing, at the time of the Blitz over London during World War II. The couple meet up with handsome American novelist Van Johnson, only for he and Kerr to fall for each other and from there to the end, the narrative is more or less a slow expiation of her guilt as she wrestles with her commitment to. Cushing and her passion for Johnson.
The crux of the movie occurs when a bomb hits the house where the lovers are having an assignation. Kerr survives but sees under the rubble an apparently lifeless body she believes to be Johnson. In desperation she offers up a prayer telling God that if He lets Johnson live, she will give him up for good and dutifully return to Cushing's side. And Johnson does indeed survive, leaving Kerr feeling obligated to keep to her celestial bargain. Only she can't get over Johnson and so turns for advice to both a male friend, who bears a disfiguring birthmark over half his face and also a less-than-dogmatic priest after hours in church.
A year ater, a still pining Johnson bumps into Cushing, who, still unsuspecting of the affair, invites him to their house to await her return from her habitual troubled, nocturnal wanderings. The scene is seemingly set for a final resolution of this romantic triangle before fate steps in again with devastating implications for all three.
The film features two fine lead performances by both Kerr and Cushing, although Johnson is a bit over-dramatic at times, and is atmospherically directed by noir-specialist, Edward Dmytryk, then in Blacklist exile, who captures well the furtive element of the secret affair, capturing the pair walking the darkened, rainy streets of London or meeting in gloomy interiors.
Ultimately, the film fails, its theme of Catholic guilt proving too much of a cross to bear coupled with two over-dramatic life-or-death plot points, which I readily concede were present in the novel and so probably unavoidable.
Still, these narrative weaknesses apart, the good performances and skilful direction already mentioned carry the film a good way, if not quite down the road to ultimate redemption.